Create A Monster

Setup

This project is best completed individually, but students can work in pairs if necessary.

Students will each need a piece of paper (at least A4 size).

Project

1. Tell the class that together, you’re going to create a monster. Start drawing the monster on the board, but for every main body part, stop and ask the children for suggestions. For example, How many eyes has she got? She’s got six eyes – draw six eyes on the board.
2. You may want to write the full sentence descriptions on the board for students to refer to later.
3. Students draw and colour their own monster on their paper. Encourage them to be creative and use unusual numbers of body parts.
4. They then (if they are able), make sentences to describe their monster’s appearance, using the target language. You may wish for them to write a draft in their notebook before writing on the paper. If students are not able to write yet this can just be done orally.
5. Students then present their monsters to each other (making ‘monster friends’), and/or the class. They share their descriptions orally, using the target language.
6. You could display the finished monsters on the classroom wall.

Target Language

The Create A Monster ESL project is designed for young kids at beginner level. It’s great for practising simple body parts or numbers, e.g. My monster has twelve eyes and three noses.

It’s also a good way to familiarise students with has/has got sentences. As an extension, you could ask questions to the class to point out the use of ‘have’ in the plural. For example, Which monsters have got three eyes? Look – Kenny’s monster, Sophia’s monster and Carlos’ monster have got three eyes!

For a similar activity to practise slightly different language, try Create A Superhero.